Is Larry Drew ready - and seasoned enough - to run Roy Williams' Carolina offense?
Though inexperienced in the back court, can Carolina's long and talented front line replace the scoring provided by Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington, Ty Lawson, and Danny Green?
Can Dean Thompson and Marcus Ginyard lead a young team the way David Noel and Tyler Hansbrough did in 2006?
The clear answers, writ large tonight in another embarrassing home loss this time to FSU, are no, no and no. That's been evident all season, at least this calendar year, but it saddens nonetheless.
Against FSU tonight Larry Drew looked clueless, seemingly unaware that his number one job is to push the ball up court and get the ball down low. But in addition to initiating Carolina's offense, a Tar Heel point guard is supposed to disrupt the other team's offense. Drew was horrible at both tonight (as was his back up, Dexter 'Sloppy' Strickland).
Our most reliable low-post scorer, Dean Thompson, barely touched the ball and ended up only taking 6 shots. Deon should assert himself more, so it's not completely Drew's fault. But after almost a full season at the point he still seems incapable of regularly initiating Carolina's offense.
Carolina's injury-depleted front court was overmatched by a more physical opponent again tonight. In the first half Drew did feed the post a bit, but mainly to John Henson and Tyler Zeller. Unfortunately, Henson was routinely manhandled by the Seminoles front line and Zeller must have run out of gas as he played limited minutes in the second half. Without Ed Davis, our most talented player hands down, and the Wear brothers our front court is literally thin - and thin.
I thought he would, but Deon has not established himself as the go-to player for the Heels this season. And Ginyard seems to lack the talent - perhaps due to his multiple injuries - to lead this team. Our two senior leaders have struggled to lead this team ever since the loss to Texas in Cowboys Stadium.
No, no, no.
To make matters worse, with the exception of Will Graves and Zeller the Heels played as if they were going through the motions tonight. Most of the team acted as if the season was already over despite the fact that winning four in a row, though improbable, could have gotten the Heels to 7-9 and probably into the NCAA tournament. Winning against FSU would have meant the team still had some fight left, perhaps enough to run the table - again improbable - at the ACC tournament. Or at least stay out of a last-place tie with NC State.
The lack of effort was most pronounced on the defensive end, where FSU easily moved the ball on offense and seemingly got any shot they wanted.
So still no answers, no wins, and another loss in Chapel Hill. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it did.
4 comments:
How can you not mention Roy? He is the coach, he is the adult, he is the problem with this team--clearly he does not know how to motivate these talented young men, so the buck stops with him, and he needs to get these guys playing. Is he more like Matt than Dean?
Dean, hands down. I think Roy gets the benefit of the doubt, though if he's guilty of anything it's for recruiting mistakes in the back court. Injuries, youth and leadership plague Carolina's front court, not talent. But in the backcourt talent - and perhaps experience - is the problem. Right now the players 'ol Roy recruited to play guard stink. But who knows, in a year Larry Drew could be a first-team All-ACC player and Dexter Stickland could morph into Shammond Williams. Those two are in over their heads this season but could easily become stars with one year of seasoning.
It's just not simple enough to say the backcourt is the problem. Drew is the only fairly competent guard on the team. No one else can pass, no one else can handle the ball, and he's not good enough to handle all that responsibility. Strickland has talent but hasn't gotten better; that's on him AND the coaching staff. Frankly no one on the team is good; there are some average players, but no one has had a good year. No one. So ol' Roy clearly deserves blame as well for recruiting a team without enough quality guards and for the fact the team has gotten worse, not better, as the year has gone on. Absolving him from blame would be disingenuous.
This exchanges raises the larger of issue of 'why isn't Cleo reading my blog?'
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